The story of Cluck Cluck, a hen whose loud cries alerted her grateful family to
a fire in their Wisconsin home on December 28, thus enabling them to escape, has
resounded around the world. Reporters love this story, and rightly so! But Cluck
Cluck's Heroism with its Happy Ending and shower of praise also echoes the cries
of tens of millions of chickens and turkeys on farms throughout the United
States whose clamor upon sensing a fire in their houses is totally ignored by
their owners, who refuse to install even minimal fire protection equipment,
claiming it would cost too much. They prefer to let the birds burn alive and
collect the insurance and taxpayer reimbursement from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. On Dec. 20, 2012, 25,000 turkeys burned to death on a farm in
Virginia. Last May, 500,000 hens burned to death on a farm in Colorado. Last
June, 14,000 turkeys burned to death – 7,000 in North Carolina and 7,000 in
Minnesota.

When we learned in July 2012 that the National Fire Protection Association, "the
authority on fire, electrical, and building safety," had proposed an amendment
requiring all newly-constructed farmed animal housing facilities to be equipped
with sprinklers and smoke control systems, and that the agribusiness lobbies had
successfully joined forces to defeat the proposal, we filed our own Appeal and
gave testimony at the NFPA's Meeting on the proposal on August 7 in Quincy,
Massachusetts.

Though the agribusiness lobby won the first round, we will continue to fight for
a NFPA provision mandating that fire protection equipment be installed in all
farmed animal housing facilities. Nothing shows more starkly their total lack of
compassion and accountability than the refusal of farmers and farming
corporations to install basic fire protection equipment in the buildings they
trap their animals in. If the alarm cries of one single hen could be heard two
floors from where the Wisconsin family lay sleeping, imagine the sound of many
thousands of birds trapped in their cells, and nobody listening as they scream,
burn, and suffocate to death together.

Read more:

[1]Wisconsin Couple Saved from Fire by Pet Chicken

[2]The Beloved Pet Chicken Who Saved a Couple from Their Burning Home

[3]Twenty-five Thousand Turkeys Burn to Death in Virginia Poultry House Fire

[4]United Poultry Concerns Seeks Fire Protection for Farmed Animals

United Poultry Concerns wishes everyone a very happy and productive 2013. Thank
you for your continuing support for UPC and the Birds!